BY BRENDAN FARRINGTON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a woman who donated an egg to her lesbian partner has parental rights to the child and is ordering a lower court to work out custody, child support and visitation arrangements.

The case involves two women, identified only by their initials, who had a child together. One donated an egg that was fertilized and implanted in the other, who gave birth in 2004.

But two years later the Brevard County couple split up, and the birth mother took the girl and left the country. The other woman, who identifies herself as the biological mother, used a private detective to find her former partner in Australia, and a custody fight ensued.